After being forced out of active competition for over a year following an ACL injury, UFC welterweight Dustin Hazelett was looking to get back to his winning ways last January. Unfortunately, a crisp combo from U.K. standout Paul Daley sent him crashing to the canvas in the first round with a fractured orbital.

Now just one week removed from a Preliminary card battle with up-and-coming prospect Rick Story at UFC 117, Hazelett spoke with Tapology’s Steven Kelliher about the mistakes he made in the Daley fight and how he plans on getting back on track in his next bout.Tapology: You obviously had a major setback in your most recent fight against Paul Daley. Can you talk about some of your technical mistakes in that fight?

Hazelett: I made a lot of mistakes in that fight. I think a lot of it came down to being over trained and it being my first fight in 14 months. He’s not a slouch by any means and any time you make a mistake on the feet with a guy with that level of striking it’s going to turn out a lot worse than if you were fighting a lesser opponent. I don’t want to dwell on it too much, but there were a lot of variables in there and I’ve definitely worked on correcting the things that I can.

Tapology: I know that you aren’t too concerned with the small orbital fracture that you received in your last fight, but does it concern you at all heading into future fights that these injuries and future injuries will start to accumulate or do you just accept it as a reality of the sport?

Hazelett: It is what it is. Yeah I’m worried about the injuries accumulating over time but I’ve been very blessed over my career by not having the injuries that a lot of fighters have. I’m not overly worried about it.

Tapology: After dealing with the lengthy recovery process for your ACL injury, are you still happy with your career choice and were there times during that recovery that you thought about not doing this anymore?

Hazelett: I feel good about it now but I’d be lying if I said that during that 14-month layoff it wasn’t hard. It definitely tests you mentally and I think it made me stronger. Everything happens for a reason, too.

Tapology: There was a recent Impact FC event in Australia that featured Ken Shamrock getting TKO’d in the first round, again. He is much older than you and is obviously sticking around for the paydays, but he is no doubt brutalizing his body. Do you have a general exit strategy planned even at this early stage of your career?

Hazelett: Yeah, I’ve always thought that having a Plan B in a sport this dangerous is important. What I’d like to do after my career’s over is to open a small gym, teach some seminars, and mooch off of my fiancé. If everything goes according to the plan I’ll have a lot of money saved up from my career so I can open a small gym. I don’t want to be working myself to death and raking in a ton of money in a huge gym, just enough to make a comfortable living.

If I were to have to retire early then I would probably be able to find a job teaching Jiu-Jitsu.

Tapology: The reason I ask is because you see fighters like Rich Franklin, who has publicly stated that he has a clear exit strategy and retirement plan set up, and then you see guys like Ken Shamrock sticking around a lot longer than they should. Since you began competing in this sport for the love of it, rather than the money, are you confident that you will be able to walk away from that one last fight when the time is right?

Hazelett: I guess I’ll have to wait and see. I’ve always said that I’m going to do it until is stops being fun and then I’ll quit and do something else. If I’m in a position where I’m getting older, starting to lose, and still don’t want to retire then I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. It’d be hard to walk away from something that you want to do that badly.

Tapology: Onto the good news, you will be making your comeback against Rick Story on the Preliminary card of UFC 117. What do you think about him as an opponent and his recent performances?

Hazelett: He’s definitely a very tough fighter. I’m looking forward to this fight. I think it should be a really good and entertaining fight. I think he’s underrated; I was looking at the fan voting and I’m a huge favorite to win the fight, but he’s a tough guy.

Tapology: When I spoke with him recently, he respected you, but he did say that he thought your chin might be a bit weaker now that you have been knocked out pretty badly. Do you believe it is easier to knock someone out once it has already happened?

Hazelett: I don’t know. You see that a lot and you hear people saying that a lot, but I don’t know if it’s purely a mental thing or if it’s based on scientific fact. It could be a mental thing for the fighter that was knocked out and for the other fighter, because he might think it will be easier to knock him out. I haven’t put a lot of thought into that.

Tapology: Is this a fight that you will be looking to take to the ground or do you think you can use your range and kicks to pick him apart on the feet?

Hazelett: I think either of those would be a good strategy. I don’t think he’s going to be easy to submit or knock out because neither of those has happened to him in his career. I always like to be prepared for everything in a fight and go off of what they give me. If I’m winning on the feet and I try to take him down then I risk shooting into a Guillotine or something like that.

When he Arm Triangled Brian Foster from inside his guard, that is an impressive amount of strength because you really should have no leverage from there. Granted Brian didn’t really use his hips to push him away, but that’s still an impressive amount of strength.

Tapology: Both Story and I think this fight is going to make the main card. Do you agree?

Hazelett: I definitely hope so and I definitely think so. He is very similar stylistically to Josh Burkman, and that fight was pretty exciting. This is going to be one people want to see. I’m looking forward to stringing some wins together and hopefully staying injury-free.